


Coping

by MadamRed



Series: 400-Follower Celebration (Tumblr) [4]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Episode: s11e11 Entropy, F/M, Fluffy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 02:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9101371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadamRed/pseuds/MadamRed
Summary: Writing prompt requested on Tumblr by someone from AO3! I really hope you enjoy it! :)“Hey! I was wondering if you could possibly do a reader insert fic with Spencer Reid where he gets into some sort of trouble (canonical or made up) and the reader is worried sick about him, maybe even a little angry but it ends fluffy? And could you possibly have the reader be male, or at least gender neutral? If that’s something you’re okay with? Thanks for your time! :)”





	

You knew he could handle himself despite his seemingly scrawny physique, but that didn’t mean you worried any less for his safety.

Spencer told you of his plan even though he wasn’t supposed to reveal that kind of information to a civilian. He told you of how he wanted to have a dinner date with a female serial killer. No biggie, right? Then, he told you his boss had agreed to it! He didn’t tell you the details of the operation, but the confirmation that his idea was actually going to materialise was enough to make you incredibly anxious.

You saw him all dressed up in his dark suit, looking at himself in the standing mirror you had bought for the bedroom you two shared as he adjusted his purple tie.

‘Are you... are you sure about this, Spencer?’ you insisted in a small, weak voice. You had had the same conversation over and over again for at least a week.

He didn’t respond. He just turned and focused his eyes on your hunched form as you kept your own gaze on the floor and wriggled your hands.

He walked, calmly, towards you and knelt in front of you despite the fact that he was probably going to wrinkle his suit.

‘Yes, I am,’ he told you sweetly, for the umpteenth time. The man was too patient with you; you were sure anyone else would have been annoyed by your endless questions already.

When you said nothing, though, he frowned, worried. He put his right hand on your knee to regain your attention and called your name.

‘I’m sorry,’ you croaked and sniffed.

You raised your head and saw his eyes moving around your face, desperately looking for words of comfort that might help calm you down, but he found none. He had none.

‘(Y/N), do you trust me?’ he asked you. You could sense a little bit of emotion behind his words. You nodded, unable to say anything. ‘Then, please, believe in me, _and_ in my team. We’re gonna catch her and keep Garcia safe. I promise.’

 _And who is gonna keep_ you _safe?_ your brain provided. But, you just nodded again.

From the other room, you both heard his phone ringing with a new message, and he looked at his watch.

‘Shoot, I have to go. The taxi must be about to arrive,’ he stood up and went to his desk to grab his phone, wallet and keys.

You got up as well, not really knowing what to do with yourself now that he was about to leave. While he was there, showering, you had focused on the sound of the water, thinking about him with his hair wet and brushed back, and somewhat in control, for once. Then, you watched him come out of the bathroom, body dry, except for the few drops that fell from his still-dripping hair.

You got distracted following the drops’ path from the spot where you were lying down on the bed. He caught you staring but said nothing; he just smiled once he turned to retrieve the suit he had chosen from his side of the closet, comfortable being like that around you.

When he finally asked you to help him tape the mic’s wires to his body and to assess whether the mic was noticeable inside his tie, your hands started shaking. It was _real._ It was going to happen. And now that he was about to walk through the front door, you were officially on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

You took a deep breath as he left the room and felt your heart beating slightly less erratically, but your eyes must have told him how you really felt because he stopped once he came into the bedroom again.

He approached you and took your hand in his, intertwining your fingers. Since you didn’t want to meet his eyes, you dropped them to your feet, and so he took advantage of your similar heights to lean his forehead against yours.

‘Listen to me,’ he implored, and you closed your eyes, focusing solely on his soothing voice, ‘I’m going to be _fine._ We’ve handled these kinds of situations before and they have all turned out alright. This is no different in that sense. It’s just me getting a little bit closer to the action. I’ll be fine. Please, trust me on this.’

He gently grabbed the back of your head with his other hand and he kissed you on the forehead, before whispering the three words that had taken him such a long time to utter. You stood there alone for a second, processing what had just happened, and ran after him.

‘Wait!’ you yelled from the middle of the living room.

He had his hand on the handle but stopped at the urgency in your voice. You walked up to him and now it was your turn to grab him by the neck. However, this time, you didn’t go for a chaste gesture like he had done. You crashed your lips against his and felt that same rush from your first date once you felt his lips moving in perfect synch with yours.

It continued for a few minutes, until his phone rang again, signalling that he really needed to leave.

‘I’m sorry- mmm’ he started saying but you interrupted him with another, more innocent kiss.

‘I know,’ you sighed and reluctantly let go of his face. ‘I love you, too, by the way.’

He gave you the brightest smile before he opened the door and left you to the most stressful couple hours of your life.

 

* * *

The relief you felt when Penelope Garcia called you to tell you everything was fine and that she expected you to come to her impromptu ‘I’m-free-again-baby!’ party at Morgan’s -her words, not yours- was indescribable. You truly didn’t calm down until you followed her out the door with Savannah and found her hugging the love of your life.

Savannah was eyeing you closely and told you:

‘It never gets easier for us, huh?’

‘It sure doesn’t,’ you replied and shared a smile only you two understood. ‘Hey, is it okay if we just-?’

‘Please!’ she laughed and then added when you hesitated, ‘Come on, go to him!’ she even pushed you a little bit on the shoulder to get you moving.

When your eyes connected with Spencer’s, it felt like the sound of the entire world disappeared. You could see cars driving by; you could see Morgan laughing as Penelope spoke happily, drunk on both her new-found freedom and the amount of alcohol she had consumed already. And yet, nothing interrupted the silence created by your own personal bubble.

Once Penelope ran past you, and Morgan and Savannah followed her in fear of what her drunken state might cause in their house, you walked up to him.

‘Hi,’ he said smiling shyly. And just like that, the spell was broken.

‘Hey yourself,’ you wanted to kiss him senseless, but PDA was something you both tried to stay away from. ‘Shall we walk home?’

‘Yeah,’ he agreed and you started a silent stroll along the streets.

It was a good ten minutes before either of you spoke again.

‘I... I want to tell you all about tonight but I really don’t want to talk about it right now. Is that... okay?’ he looked up and gave you his big, puppy eyes that you couldn’t say no to.

‘Sure, whatever you need,’ you conceded. You were happy to give him that since you weren’t certain you _could_ take the story that night.

‘I really just want to go home, lay down next to you and sleep for at least two days,’ he sighed, confessing how truly exhausted he felt.

‘Wow, the great Spencer Reid, three times PhD, reveals his true feelings to the world! Shocker!’ you teased him.

‘Shut up! I’m trying, alright?’ he gave you a bigger smile this time, the one you only saw around the apartment when it was just the two of you, away from the world.

‘Oh, I know,’ you bumped his shoulder as you walked side by side. ‘Hey, it’s not to get you to start talking but, I just want you to know that I was pretty much climbing the walls while I waited for Garcia to call.’

‘I’m sorry. Nothing else to say comes to mind... at least, nothing useful,’ he told you, his voice fading towards the end.

‘You know, for a genius-’

‘I can be a bit thick sometimes,’ he interrupted you with a grin. ‘Yeah, but you’re always there to help me figure things out.’

He then extended his hand to you, and you took it, happy that he was safe and sound.


End file.
